Apparatus for printing tennis balls



Nov. 29, 1938. s- MCCHESNEY w 2,138,350

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING TENNIS BALLS Filed M h 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORJ CunE/i'S/Wc cHES/VEK fi ATTORNEYS MCI/#151. LUKA cz C/P.

Nov. 29, 1938.. q- S-MCCHESNEY 2,138,350

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING TENNIS BALLS Filed March 50, 1957 4 t S t 2 IN VENTORJ @7WATTORNEYS Nov. 29, 1938. C- MCCHESNEY/ 2,138,350

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING TENNIS BALLS Filed Mar ch so. 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORs Cur; ERAS: 171a GYES/VEK BYMCHHEL LUKACZC/A.

I %ATTORNEYS Nov. 29, 1938. c s n H Y 2,138,350

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING TENNIS BALLS Filed March 30, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IN VENTORS CUJ/LEI? 5'. CHES/VEH B McW/IEL Z, (/KA 020k w ATTORNEY-S Patented Nov. 29, 1938 Cuyler S. McOhesney and Michael Lukacz, Jr., Kenmore, N. Y., assignors to Dunlop Tire and Rubber Corporation, Buffalo, ,N. Y a corporation of New York Application March 30, 1937, Serial No. 133,782

6 Claims.

Our invention relates to an apparatus for printing tennis balls as, for example, printing them with a trade-mark.

The surface of the fibrous covering of Melton cloth with which tennis balls are covered rapidly wears away when the ball is in play and, accordingly, the trade-mark or other printed matter on this surface soon becomes illegible, or vanishes with the surface.

In our present invention this rapid disappearance of the printed matter, or its legibility, is avoided by causing the printing material to sink inwardly from the surface of the cloth to a depth that remains after considerable wearing away of the fibrous material at the surface.

Our invention, therefore, provides an apparatus by which the surface of a tennis ball may be brought into contact with a printing die having sufiicient of the coloring material and for a sufiicient time to cause the material to sink deeply into the cloth wherever an impression is made. Preferably, the printing material comprises a coloring material dissolved in a wax or waxy composition of high melting point which, during printing, is heated to render it fluid at those points of contact with the tennis ball surface at which the color is to be applied' The invention also provides a transfer strip carrying a relatively large proportion of the printing composition and capable of impressing the tennis ball with suificiently fine detail.

The various features of the invention are illustrated, by way of example, in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figs. 1 and 2 are, respectively, side and plan views of an apparatus for impregnating or forming the transfer strip for printing.

Fig. '3'is a plan view, and Fig. 4; a side elevation, of a machine for printing tennis balls.

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line I55 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a front view of elements for transferring a design to a ball.

Fig. 7 isa section .on line 'l'l of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of the mechanism shown in 'Fig. 6, partly in section, on line 88 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 9 is a front view of a printing plate.

'Fig. 10 is a view of a completed ball of our invention.

In .our :invention a design is printed from a transfer strip to the surface of a tennis ball by pressing a heated printing element against the transfer strip and forcing the latter into contact with the surface of the ball. The contact strip is made .ofa fabric capable of holding a relativelylarge quantity of a colored wax composition, rayon being a suitable fabric for this purpose. Any suitable wax may be employed but, preferably, one of high melting point. A wax consisting of 85 parts carnauba Wax (No. 1 yellow), 6 parts-of stearic acid (triple pressed), 7 parts of paraffin, and '2 parts of a suitable color, such as Victoria Blue (B 'base), or other color soluble in the wax is suitable for this purpose. The transfer strip may be made and renewed by passing it through a molten mixture of the wax and removing excess therefrom.

In printing a tennis ball, the transfer strip is drawn from a take-off roll to a wind-up roll between a. heated :printing plate and a ball holding and positioning-element. During each printing cycle the ball and the printing plate are forced toward each other so as to heat and press the transfer stripagainst the ball wherever the color is to be transferred.

The ball and printing plate are held in this position for a timed interval sufficient to permit the colored wax to sink deeply into the fibrous Melton cloth. 'Thereupon the ball and printing plate are withdrawn, the ball replaced by a succeeding one, the transfer strip moved to expose a new area to the printing operation, and the process repeated. Preferably, there are timed intervals in which a'ball may be removed and replaced and in which the printing plate and ball are pressed'against opposite sides of the transfer strip.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, a strip or strips H of rayon, or other suitable fabric, to be impregnated with the colored wax are drawn from their respective reels [2 mounted on a suitable frame I;3 into a bath IA of colored wax composition maintained molten by an electric'heating coil 15. Three strips are illustrated in the drawings as-being waxed in a single path simultaneously, but it will be understood that the apparatus may be made to accommodate one or any number -of strips at a time by providing a suitable number of reels. In passing through the bath M the strips H are drawn beneath a pair .of rods l6 and =I 'l andthen passed outwardly and alternately over and under a number of supporting rods I8, 18', l9, i9, 20, 20, 2!, 2| and 22 to a pair of pull rollers23 and 24 journalled in the frame [3 and having intermeshing gears 25. One :of the pull rollers 24, for example, is driven by a motor 26 through a belt 21 which is trained over a pulley 28 keyed onto the shaft of the roller:24. As the transfer strip leaves .the molten .bath i4, excess wax is scraped from one side by the first rod l8. The wax composition given by way of example above will be in molten condition at 95 to 100 F., and the bath is kept at this temperature.

By the time the strips reach the rolls 23 and 24 the wax will have cooled and solidified sufficiently to remain in position on the strips. From the rolls 23 and 24 the strips then pass about a horizontal rod 29 and thence to respective takeup reels 38. The take-up reels 30 are driven from a group of grooved pulleys 3| on the shaft of the roll 24 by means of belts 32 which are trained about grooved pulleys 33 on the respective shafts of the take-up reels 30. There is a sufficient slippage between the belt and the grooved pulleys 33 so that the take-up reels 39 do not exert a pull on the pull rolls 24 much in excess of that required to roll up a strip as it leaves the pull rolls.

Referring to Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive, in printing the tennis balls from the transfer strip waxed as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the strip is drawn from a let-off reel 34 about a guide pulley 35, thence through a printing mechanism 36 by an indexing roll or pulley 31 and pressing roll 38, and then wound up on a take-up reel 39. The printing mechanism 36, as shown more particularly in Figs. 6, 7 and 8, comprises a registering block 40 having an opening fitting the curvature of a ball 4| to be printed, a pressing lever or finger 42 to press the ball into the spherically curved surface of the registering block 40, and a heated printing plate 43 to be brought against the spherical surface of the ball extending through the recess in the registering block 40.

The strip is drawn into position between the registering block 49 and the printing block 43 so that the raised parts on the printing block will press the transfer strip into engagement with the surface of the ball 4|. The printing block 43 is heated by an electric coil 44 to melt the colored wax and cause it to sink in and penetrate the covering fabric of the ball. The movements of the printing block and of the finger 42 are controlled by a motor of substantially constant speed which, in each revolution, opensa valve during a predetermined cycle of the revolution, and closes it during the remainder of the cycle. When the valve is opened, it admits fluid pressure, or other motive means, to drive the printing block and the ball to be printed into contact through the transfer strip and to hold them in tight engagement throughout the cycle, and then to release them and permit the ball to be replaced by another, and a new length of transfer strip to be drawn into position. 7

In Figs. 3 and 4 the timing mechanism is driven by a substantially constant speed motor 45 which is connected through a coupling 46 and speed reduction mechanism 41 to a drive shaft 48 which carries a drive pulley 49 and a timing cam 58. As shown in Fig. 4, the cam 50 comprises a segment of a circle and during a certain part of the rotation of the shaft 48 engages and presses a stem of a valve 52 to open the valve.

When the valve 52 is opened, fluid under pressure passes from the main 53 through pressure reducing mechanism 54 and branch pipe 55 through the valve and to a pipe 56 leading to one side of the diaphragm of a diaphragm control valve 51. Upon the admission of fluid pressure to the diaphragm valve 51, the valve stem 58 of the latter is pushed downwardly. Pressure fluid is supplied from the reduction mechanism 54 through pipe 59 to the valve chamber 68 of the valve 51, and when the valve stem 58 is depressed, the valve member BI is in position to admit air from the pipe 59 to a pipe 62 leading to the right hand end of an air cylinder 53. Simultaneously, the pipe 54 leading from the opposite end of the cylinder 63 is put into communication with an exhaust pipe 65. The pressure fluid admitted to the cylinder 63 forces a piston 56 to the left in the position shown in Figs. 4 and 5. This piston 66 has a piston stem 6'1 carrying on its free end a crosshead 68 to which is bolted the printing block 43. This movement of the piston 65, therefore, carries the printing block 43 toward engagement by a ball 4| in position in the registering block 45. The crosshead 68 has a depending bracket 78 which is connected by means of a link H with the Vertical lever 42 pivoted at 13 in a bracket 74 of the frame of the machine so that as the crosshead moves toward one side of the ball 4|, the upper part of the lever 42 presses the ball from the opposite position. The upper end of the lever 42 is curved, as at 15, to fit the curvature of the ball 4|. In this way the printing block and the ball to be printed are pressed equally from opposite directions againstopposite sides of the transfer strip.

When the cam 59 moves out of contact with the valve stem 5|, the latter is moved to close the passage of fluid from the pipe 55 to pipe 56 and to open the latter to the atmosphere, whereupon the valve stem 58 and valve element 8| move up- Wardly. Thereupon the pressure fluid supply pipe 59 is brought into communication with the pipe 64 and the pipe 52 is brought into communication with an exhaust pipe 78. Accordingly, fluid pressure admitted through the pipe 94 forces the piston 66 to return to its original position. It remains in this position until the cam 50 again comes into contact with the valve stem 5|. The crosshead may be guided in its movements by a pair of guide stems Tl mounted in a frame 78 that carries the register block 40.

While the printing block 43 and upper part 15 of the lever 42 are in their withdrawn separated positions, the printed ball may be removed and placed on a receiving tray 19 and replaced with a new ball to be printed in a succeeding cycle. During this interval also, the roller or pulley 3! may be indexed to draw a succeeding fresh length of the transfer strip into printing position. For this purpose a ratchet 89 is provided on the roll 3'! in position to be engaged by a pawl carried on a manually operable lever 8|. To index a fresh length of strip into printing position the lever 8| is moved counter-clockwise a sufficient distance. The strip being pressed against the roller or drum 3'! by the pressure of the roller 38 which is pivotally mounted on a swinging lever 82 and pressed by a spring 83, serves to draw the length of strip past the printing position.

The take-up reel 39 is driven from the pulley 49 by means of a belt 84 which passes with light friction about a pulley 85 keyed onto the shaft 86 of the reel 39, and returning over an idler 87. The belt 84 has sufiicient slippage on the pulley 85 so that it has only sufiicient force to take up the slack in the strip between the indexing pulley 31 and the reel 39 and thus causes the reel to wind up the strip.

With the above method and apparatus the application of heat and pressure from the printing block through the transfer strip to the surface of the ball may be regulated so that the wax may have time to penetrate deeply into the fabric.

That is, it may penetrate not only through the felted fibers but even, to some extent at least, intothe warp and Woof of the covering fabric. Consequently, the design or mark will remain visible a much longer time than in the ordinary printing method and apparatus. Also, the rayon transfer strip enables more wax to be carried and, therefore, provides an ample supply for penetration than would be the case if the usual paper strip were employed.

What we claim is:

1. Apparatus for printing the surfaces of fabric covered balls which comprises a printing block, means for heating said printing block, a register block, means for passing a transfer strip at successive intervals progressively between said printing block and said register block, and means to move said printing block toward said transfer strip and said register block and hold it thereagainst for predetermined timed intervals between each movement of said transfer strip.

2. Apparatus for printing the surfaces of fab ric covered balls which comprises a printing block, means for heating said printing block, a register block, means for passing a transfer strip in successive progressive steps between said register block and said printing block, and timed means to move a ball to be printed against said register block on one side of said transfer strip and to move said printing block against the surface of said ball from the other side of said transfer strip and hold them in this position for a predetermined part of each cycle and then return them to their original position.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in which said means to move a ball against said register block comprises a lever to engage a ball, a link to swing the ball engaging part of said lever in the opposite direction to the movement of said printing block, a rotating timing element, and a motor to move said printing block to and from printing position at definite timed intervals.

4. Apparatus for printing the surfaces of fabric covered balls which comprises a printing block, means for heating said printing block, a register block, a transfer strip between said printing block and said register block, a fluid actuated piston for moving said printing block to and from said transfer strip, a lever having one arm to engage a ball and a link connecting the other arm to said printing block whereby the ball engaging arm and printing block move in opposite directions, and cyclicly operating means to admit pressure fluid alternatively to opposite sides of said piston at predetermined timed intervals.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 in which said cyclicly timed means comprises a rotating cam, a valve actuated to be opened and closed by said cam, and a diaphragm valve controlled by the opening and closing of said first mentioned valve to direct pressure fluid alternatively to opposite sides of said piston.

6. Apparatus for printing the surfaces of fabric covered balls which comprises a printing block, means for heating said printing block, a register block, a transfer strip between said printing block and said register block, means for moving said printing block to and from said transfer strip,

a lever having one arm to engage a ball and a link connecting the other arm to said printing block whereby the ball engaging arm and printing block move in opposite directions.

CUYLER S. MCCHESNEY. MICHAEL LUKACZ, JR. 

